The shortest and smallest Paddy’s Day parade in the KC metro area is the one in Blue Springs (You could always beat them by going to the toilet in your house - unless you have the odd combination of a very big house and just the one toilet).

Distance:
The distance of the parade route is believed to be 66 feet. There are other parades in the world claiming to be the shortest, but 66 feet is really a very short distance so shouldn’t take you too long to drive.

Time:
The 2016 Blue Springs St Patrick’s Day parade takes place actually on St Patrick’s Day, on Thursday 17th March that is, from 9am to 10am (Slow walkers).

Route (Don’t blink):
The parade begins at 1112 W Main Street at The Soda Fountain/Flower Shop and ends across the street at The Keg, which is at 1123 W Main Street.
And that all takes place as you might guess in downtown Blue Springs, Missouri.

More, maybe:
See more, or less, at the Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce website

Read: The 2016 Blue Springs St Patrick’s Day Parade »

The 2016 Mardi Gras & Irish Festival in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, takes place this Saturday from noon until 5pm.

Parade:
Downtown. Starts at 2pm. Line up is at 1pm

Live Music:
Scott Ford, 12-2pm and 2:30-4:30pm
Farmers Market parking lot at Broadway & Elizabeth

Children’s Activities:
Available throughout the day at the east end of the Farmers Market parking lot.

Highland Dancers:
East end of Farmers Market parking lot at 1pm

Beer Garden:
12-5pm

Reportedly all restaurants and bars will have specials on festive Irish food & drinks!

Read more on the official Excelsior Springs, Missouri website. Excelsior Springs, just minutes away from Kansas City.

Read: The 2016 Mardi Gras Irish Festival »

Kansas City’s ‘biggest little fun parade’, the Irishpalooza, or the Martin City St Patrick’s Parade as you may know it, is on this Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 2pm.

This is the 21st annual holding of the Martin City St Patrick’s Parade

Theme: Shamrocks & Ewoks. Now that’s a quality theme.

Parade viewing is along 135th Street and Holmes between 135th and Blue Ridge.

Route (Now pay attention):
Parade entry line up begins at 12 Noon on Washington Street in front of the State Line Point Shopping Center. The parade entries will leave from the intersection of Washington and 135th Street at 2:00 p.m. Entries will head east along 135th Street, turn north on Holmes Road, and end at the intersection of Holmes Road and Blue Ridge. Road ready entries will disband west along Blue Ridge. Parade entries needing to load up or tear down will disband east along Blue Ridge.

Expect
Expect well dressed dogs, kids who can win prizes as princes and princesses, but most of all - expect ewoks!

There’s more over on the official Irishpalooza website

Read: Martin City’s Irishpalooza 2016 »

Kathryn Conrad, a University of Kansas researcher of Irish literature and culture, said the parade forum itself, on the holiday to celebrate Irish heritage, is an appropriate venue to answer larger questions about public discourse.

Conrad is the author of an essay on the conflict about use of public space beginning in the 1990s as leaders of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, or ILGO, clashed with the Ancient Order of Hibernians, who organized the annual parade in New York City and had prevented the group from marching.

“It was all about consumerism in public space, and it seems to me that, regardless of your opinion about the debate itself, the St. Patrick’s Day parade had become more focused on commercial interests and less about politics,” Conrad said. “[Mayor Rudy] Giuliani and others were very insistent that this was not a political parade, but that’s not true because political groups have always marched in the parade. It’s just that people didn’t want it to be controversial, to disrupt their shopping and partying.”

See more on this on the University of Kansas website

Read: KU Researcher says St Patrick’s Day parades grounds for free speech issues »

The 36th annual Brookside St Patrick’s Warm-Up parade takes place on Saturday, March 12th, 2016 at 2pm.

Route:
• Start at 65th and Wornall
• North on Wornall to 63rd St.
• East on 63rd St to Main
• South on Main St. to Meyer Blvd.
• West on Meyer Blvd. to Brookside Rd.

Theme:
Leapin’ Leprechauns (Seriously. I mean, why? Just why?)

This is very much a family fun event. I’ve even been in it a few times, playing music while walking once. And there’s usually lots of dogs.

For more information see the official website of the Brookside Business Association

Read: 2016 Brookside St Patrick’s Warm-Up Parade »

The 2016 St Patrick’s Day parade in Lee’s Summit is on Saturday March 12 from noon to 1:30pm.

Known as the Emerald Isle Parade and presented by Llywelyn’s Pub it features floats, walking groups, Irish dancers, musicians, and more. Yes more.

Route: Downtown Lee’s Summit from 8th Street, the parade heads north on Green Street, west on 3rd Street, then north on SE Main Street.

There’s actually stuff going on all day, both before and after the parade, including an Irish breakfast at Mingle from 8am to 11am, and a pub crawl organised by downtown pubs and restaurants after the parade.

See the official website of Downtown Lee’s Summit for more details.

Read: 2016 Lee’s Summit Emerald Isle Parade - Shamrockin’ »

At 11am on Saturday 12 March, the 2016 Snake Saturday parade in downtown North Kansas City, held on the Saturday before St Patrick’s Day since 1983, begins at 14th and Swift, turning right on Armour Road, then another right on Howell and continuing to 18th street.

Claiming to be the biggest Irish festival in the area with approaching 100,000 people attending over 2 days (you too can organise the biggest Irish festival in your area once you define your area small enough - for instance I organise the largest Irish festival in the part of Ireland where I am - the kitchen) technically Snake Saturday begins on the Friday evening with the opening of the carnival area and the Annual Charity Cook-off.

Over the life of the Snake Saturday parade & festival over a million dollars has been raised for charity, which is rather a lot of money.

To help start raising that second million dollars, and for more information on this 30-year tradition in the Northland, see the official website

The theme for the 31th Annual Snake Saturday Parade & Festival is….(Lord spare us) “Wee The People!”

Read: Snake Saturday 2016 »

Shawnee St. Patrick’s Parade, Duck Race and Heroes Pull

The 2016 St. Patrick’s Parade, in Shawnee is the 34th annual parade hosted by the Irish American Club of Johnson County. It starts at 1 p.m. on Sunday March 13th, 2016, and the theme is the “Irish Trifecta” of the parade, Duck Race and Heroes Pull.

The annual Duck Race is scheduled to begin this year at 4:30 p.m. after the parade.

Parade line-up begins at 11:30 a.m. at Johnson Drive and Monrovia Street and proceeds down Johnson Drive east to Nieman Road.

Chef Renee Kelly of Renee Kelly’s harvest is this year’s parade Grand Marshal. Pat O’Neill, the 2016 Grand Marshal of the Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, is a special guest at the Knights of Columbus Hall after the parade.

The 2016 Heroes Pull to benefit the Kansas Special Olympics will be at 2:30 p.m. after the St. Patrick’s Parade on Sunday, March 13 at Splash Cove, 5800 King. Team check in/weigh in begins at 1:30 pm. The Heroes Pull is an event in which teams compete pulling a Shawnee Fire Truck and a Lenco Armored Tactical Vehicle. All money raised goes to help Kansas Special Olympics Athletes. Awards are given for the three fastest teams and to the team that raises the most money for the event.

See the City of Shawnee for more details.

Read: Shawnee St. Patrick’s Parade, Duck Race and Heroes Pull »

THE ELDERS 14th ANNUAL HOOLIE

When: Saturday, March 12, 2016

Special Guests:

• The Moxie Strings
• Ceili at the Crossroads

Venue:
Knuckleheads Garage
2715 Rochester St
Kansas City Missouri 64120

Call: 816-483-1456

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS $25 advance/$30 at the door
VIP available for $60

Read: The Elders 14th Annual Hoolie »

Took your Lego out of storage today.

Decided it was time to share with your cousins.

I’m calling it a birthday present.

Just a message for a rainy day.

Read: Happy Birthday Mr Moo »

I’m in Ireland. Being Irish.

It’s where I’m from. It’s what I am.

Apologies to the countless people who have requested I post on IrishKC about all sorts of wonderful and worthy events. That I haven’t is a reflection not on the events but on my time, so unfortunately for the foreseeable future IrishKC shall continue in its long all-but-dormant state.

In the meantime if you wish to pretend to be Irish at this time of year you can find plenty of people who pretend to be Irish all year round - and they’re only too willing to tell you what is and what isn’t Irish. You can choose to believe them, or if you really want to know you could read some books.

And since I’m always asked - for the big day in question I’ll be cooking, oh I don’t know but I’m guessing pork chops - because that’s all that’s in the house right now. And I’ll still be Irish and in Ireland.

Comments are closed not because I don’t like you but because I don’t have the time to fix the website and make them work properly.

Read: In Ireland »

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Read: Eighteen »

I haven’t been very well the last few days.

Am expecting to get better from tonight.

Then March can begin.

Read: March On »

People are asking me when I started the official blog of the Kansas City Irish Festival. The question has long been answered over in the About Me section, but here’s a slightly longer answer:

I started the blog of the KC Irish Fest in 2003 - the year of the 1st festival, and continued writing it until 2006 during the build up to the 4th festival.

While blogging as a concept was around from the mid-1990s and the word ‘blog’ was in use from 1997 (I had been blogging in a personal capacity from 2000), outside tech circles the word ‘blog’ wasn’t all that widely known in 2003. As a result I softly introduced it to the rest of the organisers of the festival. There were several meetings where I had to explain the term.

At the end of 2004 Merriam-Webster declared ‘blog’ as their word of the year. This was the same year that Google enhanced significantly its service called “Blogger” which it had only bought from Pyra Labs the previous year. These two events persuaded me in 2005 to move the Irish festival blog from its in-house engine onto the Blogger engine and to develop its own brand. It is this move which perhaps has caused some people to mistakenly believe the blog started in 2005 when it actually was running for 2 years at that point.

This blog, IrishKC did a similar move. It currently runs using the WordPress engine but previously ran on the Blogger engine. While the engine (and hosting, and other things in the background) may have changed, the blog continued to be the same blog.

[Note: comments are closed because I have over 73,000 comments awaiting moderation and finding the ones that aren’t spam is far too much work.]

Read: Irish Festival Blog »